Saturday night in with a mate and a six pack or 2.
I played it first solo and got the platinum in about 5ish hours. It was no walk in the park, no matter what they say, these machines are as badass as in the movies. Where this game really shines though, is definitely in the split screen multiplayer co-op mode (No online here)and it really makes the game a bit easier, as in the single player campaign the AI is a slight bit on the slow side, if you know what I mean. Anyway, as I said, there is a lot of fun to be had here over the 9 chapters that make up the game. There are a bunch of machines from the movies and a few that were made up for the occasion, but all in all, not that much variety. This didn't really seem an issue for me though, as it would probably have got on my nerves a bit if they had made to many enemies up that you never get to see in the quadrilogy. They are all pretty tough and you'll be grateful for the cover system that allows you to strategically place yourself in order to take them out with your buddy, as the spider-bot things weakspot is on there back and the buggers never turn around, which makes it a bit hard when relying on the AI of your dumb squad to fire at it. There attacks and routines are quite repetitive and predictable, which is why I say it has an oldschool feel to it. Me and my freind hadn't had this much split screen fun since some mecha game that I had on the Super Nintendo. (I forget what it was called, Probotector I think).
There are some vehicle missions thrown in as well for good measure where you have to protect refugees and the like.
The game itself is set 2 years prior to the Terminator Salvation movie, which redeems itself a bit for not using Christian Bale in the game (although personally I couldn't care less, I think he's a bit overrated, but hey).
People nitpick at the game for not including any background story for Connor. Hello, anybody home? Hasn't anyone being paying attention to the movies for crying out loud? What more backstory could we need?
The actual story of the game is a bit on the simple side, but serves its purpose i s'pose, just like a Michael Bay movie. (This story is actually a damn sight better than Bay's last pathetic effort) but the game could have been a masterpeice had they thrown in a few real boss battles, like actually letting you fight the harvester for example at the end and maybe the levels being a bit less linear. At the end of the day this would only take away the old school feel I guess, so...
Graphically it's nothing to write home about, but as with the story, it serves it's purpose and there are worse looking titles out there, I can assure you.
The controls are decent, nothing to complain about there, although certain flying robots are hard to hit first time and ammo is scarce, although this added extra tension for me, plus the fact that your life will only regenerate once you have killed the waves of enemies that are on the screen at any given time.
All in all it's a fun romp while it lasts and is a gold and platinum trophy booster that holds up better for the pride than Hannah Montana would (you know who you are...)